Fuel economy and a bigger tank?

TexasKZ wrote: Do you have a vacuum hose hooked up to the petcock? If not, it will not operate properly. Some owners will mistakenly remove the hose and use PRI as the ON position and one of the others as OFF, rather than fix a leaking petcock. If that is the case, you need to carefully clean it and replace the old rubber bits. Genuine Kawasaki parts are best in this case. 650Ed seems to have the rest covered.

Thanks. I'm going to be taking it back down to the shop tomorrow anyway to have the windshield adjusted. It's not present on the photo in my avatar, but I hadn't moved it over from my Rebel when I took the photo. It's a Slipstream S-00 Enterprise windshield... I'm hoping it'll improve my aerodynamics a bit and keep my ears from being assaulted by the wind. Try to imagine a windshield that big on a little Rebel 250... I was riding that little bike while working on getting the KZ restored over the last 2 years... Suffice to say I've become something of an icon in a town full of bikers because of the juxtaposition of that huge windshield on that little bike.

Anyway, I'll talk to the mechanic at the shop about the vacuum line on the petcock as well as the hissing from the cap. I paid him good money to put the bike back together after I finished refurbing and remanufacturing everything (most of that done by myself). He's also a friend of mine so he'll probably do it for free instead of arguing with me about it.

Also I'll run 650Ed's suggestions by him too.

On and res only open when the engine is running. It's vacuum actuated either you don't have the vacuum line connected or you are only checking fo flow with the engine off. If you are only running with the petcock on prime you can't use reserve so you are missing a good chunk of fuel for range.

If you don't have a vacuum line connected and the port or ports aren't plugged. You should be running way lean. If the carbs are tuned to compensate you are going to burn hella more fuel.

My petcock doesn't allow fuel to flow in the ON or RES setting, only in the PRI setting, and then the fuel leaks out if the bike sits with it on PRI...

If that's how the petcock behaves when the engine is not running, that's normal.
When the engine is stopped, ON & RES function the same as the off position found on a manual fuel valve.
If the leak is only happening when the bike is parked & set to PRI, that's a common occurrence. just set the petcock to ON which is where it should be most of the time anyway. ON is the normal riding position. and leave it there when the bike is parked.

Thank you, everybody. I don't know if the fuel economy problem is fixed but I'm helpful because the vacuum line was pinched off and had to be replaced and rerouted to a different carb. The bike now runs properly with the petcock on ON and RES. Without you guys I don't know what I would have done with Shooter. Spend two years getting her back on the road and I can't afford what was just today down to 20 miles per gallon. Thank you.

Ok, managed to scrounge up some gas money to test the fuel economy with the petcock vacuum hose fixed... It's improved. Instead of ~20mpg that I was getting just before that, I got 33.6 just now... Still about another 12 to go, and I think I know where the problem lies.

When I got home today from the test ride, I noticed that the same carb that I'd reported dripping is still dripping, but it's doing so when the bike is running. Going to check out the advice 650ed suggested about things to check in the carb bowl...